Nile Steamship
Nile Steamship (legal entity The Nile Co. for River Transport) is a regional specialist headquartered in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 1933, the line has spent 93 years building out its container service network and today operates a fleet of 18 vessels under the SCAC code NSTM. Total operated capacity stands near 4,000 TEU, placing the carrier among the recognised operators on its core trade lanes. The company holds intermodal equipment under 3 registered ISO 6346 owner prefixes, which appear on every box it owns or long-term leases.
Nile Steamship is most active on the following corridors: Nile, Mediterranean coastal. The line operates on a standalone basis and does not share vessel slots with other ocean carriers under a formal global alliance. Direct customer contact is available via +20 2 2393 3777 or the carrier's web portal at nilecotransport.com.
Nile Steamship container prefixes
Every intermodal container carries an ISO 6346 owner code — three letters identifying the owner, plus a single category letter (almost always U for freight containers). These four-letter prefixes are the fastest way to identify which carrier controls a given box. Nile Steamship has the following registered prefixes recorded in the BIC database. If a container in your possession begins with any of these codes, the box is owned by or leased on long term to Nile Steamship.
NSTUNSTMNLEU
To track a container under one of these prefixes, contact the carrier directly using the bill-of-lading number or container number. Most ocean carriers expose a public tracking endpoint on their website that accepts either format. Nile Steamship publishes its tracking page under the main nilecotransport.com domain.
Nile Steamship corridor coverage
Nile Steamship concentrates its services on Nile, Mediterranean coastal. Customers on these lanes typically see weekly or twice-weekly sailings depending on season and trade balance. For a current sailing schedule, contact the carrier directly or consult its weekly schedule publication.
How to track a Nile Steamship container
Tracking a Nile Steamship container starts with confirming the prefix. Look at the container's left-hand corner casting plate or the painted code on the door — the four-letter ISO 6346 owner code (e.g. NSTU) is followed by six numeric digits and a single check digit. If the prefix matches one in the list above, the box is on a Nile Steamship bill of lading. Visit nilecotransport.com, navigate to the carrier's tracking or "track and trace" portal, and paste the full container number. The portal will return current vessel position, the next scheduled port call, the estimated time of arrival (ETA) and the most recent equipment events such as gate-in, loaded, discharged and gate-out.
If the carrier portal does not return a result, the most likely causes are: the container has not yet been gate-in at the origin terminal, the bill of lading number is in a different format (check whether the system expects an MBL versus an HBL), or the box is moving on a partner alliance vessel rather than a Nile Steamship hull. In the last case, the prefix still resolves to Nile Steamship as equipment owner but the schedule data lives with the operating carrier. Nile Steamship's customer service can normally cross-reference the booking and route you to the correct alliance partner. Reach the carrier on +20 2 2393 3777 during European business hours.
Related ocean carriers
Operators most often compared with Nile Steamship on overlapping trade lanes:
- Egyptian International Shipping — Alexandria, Egypt, founded 1980. SCAC EISC.
- National Navigation Company — Alexandria, Egypt, founded 1980. SCAC NNCE.